A flagship Conservative London borough is making use of grant money from the DCLG to ramp up its crackdown against illegal subletting and potential breaches of the household benefit cap.

Westminster City Council has secured £200,000 funding from Eland House to help launch 65 fresh investigations into social housing fraud - where tenants in the west London borough sub-let properties while living elsewhere.

Fraud investigators in Westminster uncovered £1m in falsely claimed housing benefit last year, after undertaking 500 spot-checks on suspect claims.

In addition, the borough is analysing more than 200 claims in some of the council's largest properties to examine how tenants are able to remain in their properties after their benefits have been cut by up to £1,500 per week.

According to new figures released by Westminster, housing benefit claims have plunged by more than a third (34%) since the introduction of housing benefit caps, saving the borough around £40m.

Cllr Lindsey Hall, Westminster Council's fraud tsar said: ‘The Government's welfare reforms aren't the problem here, in fact they have helped us to root out those who are flagrantly playing the system, as you can see from the 30 cases of the largest claims now in the hands of our fraud investigators.'